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Photograph by Greg Silva
San Francisco has earned the distinction of being the first city in the U.S. to pass a mandatory composting law. The purpose of the ordinance is to assist the city in meeting its goal of diverting 75% of waste from its landfills by 2010. Residents are provided with garbage, recycling, and composting bins, and have until 2010 to get in the swing of composting without incurring any fines.
The dictionary defines composting as “the controlled decomposition of organic material such as leaves, twigs, grass, and certain food wastes.” By making compost, individuals and businesses can help to protect water and soil from harsh chemical fertilizers—the more compost we use, the less manufactured fertilizers and other soil conditioners our gardens require. Composting also reduces the amount of methane gas, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, that is released into the air by food waste and other organic materials buried in landfills. On the home front, composting can help your garden grow by improving the health of your soil. It also saves water by helping the soil hold moisture and reducing water runoff. Composting can also lower everyone’s garbage bills.
Although the practice is becoming more common, composting is not a new phenomenon in the Bay Area. San Francisco adopted a voluntary composting plan in 2004. Participants included more than 4,000 restaurants and food establishments, as well as an estimated 75,000 homeowners. Compost collectors like Golden Gate Disposal Recycling Company and Sunset Scavenger Company truck the compost to Jepson Prairie Organics, which is the main composter of San Francisco’s food wastes. Jepson receives about 5,200 tons of food scraps and 2,000 tons of yard trimmings per month. In about 90 days, those scraps are converted into compost that is sold to farmers for $12 a cubic yard.
Growers of wine grapes and other organic and non-organic farmers can’t seem to get enough. By utilizing compost in their soil, they claim they have healthier produce and increased yield. This produce is in turn sold in farmers’ markets and restaurants throughout the Bay Area, which return the bounty back to the earth by collecting compostable food scraps.
Through composting, large commercial establishments find their garbage collection bills have been reduced up to $1,600 a month. In San Francisco it is estimated that every year more than 105,000 tons of food scraps and yard trimmings are diverted from landfills, which in turn creates 20,000 tons of compost. This compost is applied to over 10,000 acres of land per year.
The beauty of composting is that it is as easily accomplished on an individual scale as it is commercially. You can create your own compost to use on plants, trees, lawns, and gardens. To get started, you need to purchase or make a composting bin. The ideal bin size is three feet wide and three feet deep. Homeowners can contact their local county or municipal home-composting programs to purchase discounted bins (in Santa Clara County, an Earth Machine composting bin is available for $50; phone 408.918.4640). Place the bin in an area of your yard that is flat, has bare soil, and is easily accessible for your weekly compost ministrations.
Composting requires four essential ingredients: nitrogen, carbon, water, and air. Materials that produce nitrogen, termed “green wastes,” are landscape and grass clippings, eggshells, green leaves, coffee grounds, soiled paper, tea bags, and vegetable and fruit trimmings/peels. Carbon or “brown wastes” are dry yard and garden wastes such as dry leaves, fresh manure, twigs, hay, weeds, sawdust, and small wood materials. Collect these materials separately until you have enough to make a four-inch layer of each. Start with brown materials, place green materials on top, and then add just enough water to moisten (not drench) both layers. Continue this layering process until your bin is full. Materials such as meat, bones, poultry, fish, fatty food wastes, dairy, and human or pet feces are unsuitable for composting, and will wreck the eco-balance in your composting bin.
Water and air are essential to a hot, thriving compost pile. Materials won’t compost if they are too dry, and they will begin to smell if they don’t receive enough oxygen. Weekly turning and fluffing of the pile with a pitchfork allows for fresh air to work its way into the compost layers. An excellent way to test your moisture amount is to place your gloved hand in the middle of your pile and squeeze. If you can produce a few drops of water, your compost is doing fine. If not, add water by placing your hose in the middle of the pile, or add water as you do your weekly turning.
Free Composting
Compost is given away free on Friday and Saturday mornings from March to October in Cupertino (cupertino.org) and on Compost Giveaway Days in Palo Alto (cityofpaloalto.org).
Santa Clara County offers a free, two-hour workshop in composting at various locations a few times each month (phone 408.918.4640 or visit sccgov.org).
